Big pay hikes expected after qualification: survey
By Juliet Soh
After obtaining higher levels of qualifications, most working people in Singapore expect significant pay increases, according to the 2011 JobsCentral Learning Rankings & Survey.
70.3 per cent of the respondents in the survey expect pay increases of at least 25 per cent more after obtaining their next level of academic qualifications, Further, 22.8 per cent of young working adults expect to be paid at least 50 per cent more.
A total of 3,413 respondents took the 2011 JobsCentral Learning Rankings & Survey, which was conducted online from August to September this year. The survey respondents were predominantly young working adults aged 21-40 years old. This survey has an error margin of 1.68 per cent, at a 95 per cent confidence level and has been conducted every year since 2009.
Commenting on the relationship between pay increment and further education, Lim Der Shing, CEO of JobsCentral Group, said, "For most employers, pay raise decisions are usually based on job performance improvement, increased job responsibility or increased scope of work.
"As such, professionals who expect pay raises simply because of higher educational qualifications may find themselves disappointed if they do not take on more work and responsibility at the same time."
While expectations for pay increment are high, the percentage of young working adults who intend to pursue further education has decreased. 69.6 per cent of young working adults indicated this desire this year.
This is the lowest percentage since the survey started in 2009. The percentages for 2010 and 2009 were 71.4 per cent and 79.3 per cent respectively.
"This decline can be mainly attributed to a strong local economy with near full employment. As such, young working adults feel more secure in their jobs, are getting better pay and hence feel less of a need to upgrade right now.
"However, we believe the longer term trend of continuous upgrading remains intact and will reassert itself if a recession or downturn occur," says Lim.
Other highlights from the Survey:
SIM Global Education is the most popular private education institution
For the third year in a row, SIM Global Education is voted the most preferred private education institution (PEI) by the respondents in the JobsCentral Learning Rankings & Survey. Kaplan Singapore is the second most popular, and PSB Academy is the third most popular PEI. Here are the Top 10 Rankings for the 2011 JobsCentral Most Popular Private Education Institutes:
Business Studies is the most popular course
Similar to the findings in 2010, the most popular course of study is Business Studies, with 42.1 per cent of the respondents choosing it, followed by Project Management, with 22.9 per cent of respondents voting for it.
Click here to download the full report of this survey.
The JobsCentral Group, a CareerBuilder company, is the owner of JobsCentral.com.sg, one of Singapore's largest job and learning portals. Get a free career personality test and more career- and education-related articles at JobsCentral and JobsCentral Community.
